The True Meaning Of Family
by TheGirlWithTheGreyEyes
Summary: In Sophomore year, Rachel and Puck gave their daughter Johanna up for adoption but 2 years later they had another baby girl, Caroline. After graduation they moved to New York to make their dreams come true but now their back and 14 year old Caroline is a freshman at McKinley and there she meets a girl with the name of Johanna and both the girls learn the true meaning of family. AU!


**A/N- Hey guys! So this is my first EVER story on Fanfiction as I've never had the courage to post my stories before though I have been writing stories since I was about 6 though they weren't very good, lol. So with this story, I don't really know where the idea for it came from but I thought of it and I've been letting it simmer for a while and now I've finally decided to sit down and write and post it.**

**So this is the prologue and it's an AU story though not HUGELY. In basic and simple terms here is the plot and everything you need to know:**

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**_In their Sophomore year it was Rachel that Puck got pregnant and they gave their daughter Johanna up for adoption. When two years later in their senior year Rachel is pregnant again, they know that they can't go through the pain of giving away another baby named Caroline and they have another daughter whom they keep. When they graduated Rachel, Puck and their daughter moved to New York and they never knew if they would ever see Johanna again._**

**_Fourteen years later Rachel, Puck and Caroline move back to Lima and Caroline starts her Freshman year at McKinley where she meets a girl named Johanna Lockwood and it turns out that Johanna is the baby that Rachel and Puck gave up for adoption all they years ago and Johanna's adoptive parent's died when she was younger after they came back to Lima and she is in a children's home. Once the truth is revealed, both Caroline and Johanna learn the true meaning of sisterhood and family._**

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**So that's the basic plotline and Johanna's birth is set at the end of Season 1 and Caroline's at the end of Season 3 but as it's AU, nothing in the actual seasons of Glee will be mentioned.**

**So that's all you need to know and I won't keep you any longer with a long babble.**

**I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or anything associated with Ryan Murphy because if I did, Puckleberry would reign supreme!**

**Oh and just so you know, I don't really know anything about adoption so this scene is based off of 90210 Season 1 when Adrianna gives up baby Maisie but only the basics. **

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Rachel looked down into a soft pool of hazel eyes framed by thick dark lashes that held such trust and so much love that it hurt. Her tiny button nose was one of the most gorgeous things that Rachel had ever seen and her little rosebud lips were pursed as she stared up at her mother. Rachel gently ran her index finger along the soft chestnut brown tufts of hair on top of the tiny girl's head and the baby wriggled around slightly, snuffling softly and tears started slowly trickling down Rachel's face as she attempted to memorise every single aspect of her daughter, this tiny angel's face.

"I'll leave you two alone" Jessica, the young nurse who had been with Rachel throughout her entire labour said with a small smile but Rachel barely heard her as she just continued to study her baby girl.  
She couldn't believe how something so beautiful and perfect could come from one alcohol-fueled night that alot of which was a haze. Rachel somehow managed to tear her eyes away from the tiny angel in her arms and looked over to her boyfriend, her baby's father.

"Would you like to hold your daughter Noah?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly towards the end. From where he was watching his girlfriend hold their baby, Noah "Puck" Puckerman nodded, walking cautiously towards the bed scared that a single noise might startle the tiny girl and when he finally made it to the side of the bed, his breath caught in his throat as he took in the image of his daughter tightly swaddled up in her mother's warm embrace and Rachel looked up at him with her big doe brown eyes that were filled with tears.

"Here" she whispered, offering the baby to him and Puck began to panic internally as he realised just how small and fragile the baby was and Rachel let a small smile grace her lips as she sat up higher on the bed, ignoring the pains and gently set there daughter into Puck's arms.

"Just support her head" she instructed and Puck cupped his hand around the baby's head, feeling her soft silky hair. "Hold her back and cuddle her into your chest".

Once Rachel had assured him that he wouldn't drop their daughter, Puck's shoulders relaxed slightly as he stared down at the baby. Now that he could finally get a look at her whole face, Puck could see just how much she looked like Rachel. Her rosebud lips and long lashes were identical to her mother's aswell as her dark chestnut brown hair but he could also see that she had the same jawline as him aswell as her hazel eyes which had tiny brown flecks through them.

"She looks so much like you Rach" he whispered in a slightly pained voice as he imagined a tiny Rachel Berry relying on him, always getting her own way and having him wrapped around her little finger with one look from her big doe eyes and Puck felt tears prick his eyes because he knew that he couldn't get to see his baby girl grow up, he wouldn't be there for her first birthday, her first steps, first word or her first day of school and it was the worst feeling in the world.

"She's got your eyes" Rachel said in an equally painful voice as she watched her boyfriend hold their daughter close and gently lay a kiss on her forehead.

Puck was quiet for a minute then spoke again in a kind of pleading voice. "We don't have to give her up Rach. We could be good parents" he whispered and more tears begun falling from Rachel's eyes as she gently shook her head.

"Noah..." she started but Puck cut her off.

"No Rach. We're her parents so why should anyone else raise her?" he asked with a hardness in his voice and Rachel blinked furiously.

"We're too young Noah!" she exclaimed quietly and when she saw the tears in Puck's eyes she spoke in a quieter voice. "Noah do you love her" she asked and Puck looked at her a little shocked that she would even ask that.

"Of course I do, she's half you, how could I not love her" he said looking down at his daughter who was just staring right back at him, making tiny mewling sounds again. Rachel gave a tiny smile at that.

"And it's because we love her that we're giving her up Noah. She deserves so much more than we can give her. She deserves a proper family with a white picket fence and a tree house and a dog" she said and Puck couldn't think of anything to say to that because it was true. He wanted all that for his little girl but he wanted it to be himself and Rachel to give their daughter everything but as he looked into his daughter's eyes, he knew that Rachel was right.

"I know. And Greg and Louise are pretty cool" he said eventually, referring to the couple from Connecticut that both him and Rachel had chosen to adopt their daughter after her birth and Rachel smiled at him. He gently sat down beside Rachel on the bed when she moved along and gently pressed the baby into her arms and the tiny girl nestled into her mother's warm embrace as the two teenagers just watched her, fascinated until Puck broke the silence again.

"Rach, did you want to... Did you pick a name for her?" he asked and Rachel blinked and bit her lip gently.

"Noah..." she sighed as she looked at the tiny angel curled up in her arms.

"No Rach, I just thought.. It's just I know you've had your kids names picked out since you were like, nine or something" Puck said and Rachel smiled gently, laughing a tiny little bit.

"Eight actually" she said and then gently touched her daughter's tiny button nose. "Johanna Grace. That's the name I like".

Puck looked at his girlfriend and then back at his baby girl, letting the name bounce in his head.

"Johanna's a Hebrew name and means 'God Is Gracious'" Rachel whispered, blinking away tears once again. "I've always liked it".

Puck kissed Rachel's temple and she leaned back into him and he smiled a little.

"Johanna Grace. It suits her" he said and Rachel was about to agree when she looked up at him.

"But it's not our decision Noah. It's Greg and Louise who should pick her name" she said and before Puck could say anything else, the door to Rachel's room opened and Jennifer, the woman from the adoption agency appeared with Greg and Louise behind her. She looked at the two teens and then the baby and smiled.

"Greg and Louise are here" Jennifer said and Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat as the young couple entered the room, looking at the tiny baby in Rachel's arms. The couple couldn't have their own kids together and when both Rachel and Puck met them, they both agreed that they were the best choice to raise their baby girl.

"Hello Rachel, Noah" Louise smiled, knowing that this was a delicate situation and the two teens were only kids themselves; two babies giving up their baby.

Rachel managed to give a small smile in return, not even able to force the lump in her throat away as she gazed down at her daughter knowing that this was probably the last time she'd ever be able to hold her and Puck held her tighter to his chest as he tried not to cry himself.

"Greg and Louise are ready if you are" Jennifer said in a kind voice and Rachel nodded, not able to look her in the eyes. She bent down and gently gave the baby a kiss on her forehead, gently holding her little hand.

"I'll always love you sweetheart. You'll always be with me" she whispered so quietly that only the baby and Puck could hear her and his eyes filled with tears at his girlfriends words and when he gently scooped his daughter up in his arms one last time, he honestly couldn't stop the single tear that rolled down his cheek.

Puck gently stroked his daughter's soft downy cheek and watched as she curled her tiny fingers around his thumb. "You'll always be my princess and I'll never ever stop loving you. You'll always be my baby girl" he whispered, pressing a feather light kiss to her forehead like Rachel did and then he walked around the bed and over to Greg and Louise who looked nervous as hell.

"Look after her" Puck whispered as he lowered the baby into Louise's arms, who smiled at the baby and started whispering to her and Greg shook his hand and nodded seriously.

"We will Noah. Thank you" he said and then looked at Rachel who had silent tears streaming down her face. "Thank you Rachel".

Puck moved back to Rachel and wrapped her up in his arms and Jennifer gave them a sympathetic smile.

There was a short silence in the room, aside from the baby girl's soft mewling noises and as Jennifer, Greg and Louise were leaving, Rachel spoke up.

"Does she... Does she have a name?" she asked in a broken voice and both her and Puck watched as Greg and Louise shared a look and Greg gave the two teens a small smile.

"We were going to ask if you two had picked a name" he said and Rachel and Puck looked at eachother in shock. They got to pick their daughter's name? They were silent for a minute, both the teen shaving a silent conversation before Rachel spoke, holding tightly onto Puck's hand.

"We.. We liked the uh.. name Johanna" she said nervously. "Johanna Grace. It's a Hebrew name but you don't have to use it..." she stammered, a thing you'd never normally hear from Rachel Berry but Louise cut her off.

"No. No, it's perfect" she said, gazing down at the baby in her arms then to Greg who nodded and she looked back at the teens. "It suits her" she said echoing Puck's words from earlier and Greg nodded.

"Johanna Grace Lockwood" he said and at that Rachel let loose more tears and Puck held her close and looked up at Louise and Greg.

"Thank you" he said, and those two little words held all his emotions that were threatening to burst open and Greg gave one last nod.

"No. Thank you Noah" and when Jennifer shut the door, closing off Louise, Greg and baby Johanna from her view, Rachel burst into a round of noisy sobs and Puck held her close.

"Shhhh.. Rach. It's okay, it's okay" he tried to soothe her and Rachel sobbed harder.

"I know they'll look after her and give her ev-ev-everything we couldn't Noah, but I miss h-he-her" she sobbed. "I'm a t-t-terrible person. I didn't even want m-my own daughter".

At her words Puck gently pulled back from her and looking her in the eyes, wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

"Rachel Barbra Berry, you are not a terrible person. Infact you're anything but because you put your daughter's needs before your own and you gave her to people who can give her everything she needs. So don't you ever, ever say that okay?" he said in a firm but soothing voice and Rachel managed to nod.

When she eventually stopped crying, Rachel lay down on her side with her head on the pillow. "Hold me Noah" she whispered and Puck kicked off her old sneakers and got into the bed with her, wrapping her up in his arms as a few more tears escaped.

"We did the right thing didn't we?" she whispered and Puck buried his face into her long hair and nodded, though a small part of him questioned whether it really was the right decision but he pushed that thought aside.

"Yeah we did" he muttered and Rachel sighed. "You saw how fucking devoted to her Greg and Louise looked. She'll have a great family". Rachel gave a little nod at this and burrowed down deeper into Puck's arms, her thoughts filled with her daughter's sweet little face.

They were silent for a while and Puck thought that Rachel was asleep until she spoke again.

"Noah, do you think we'll be good parents one day?" she asked sleepily and Puck smiled lightly into her hair and kissed her temple.

"Yeah babe. We'll be amazing parents one day. We'll have a little girl with your voice and my eyes and she'll have me wrapped around her little finger, always getting her own way with one look from those big eyes and we'll have a boy too with my 'hawk and your big eyes and you'll be his favourite person in the whole entire world and they'll both make us so so happy. I promise we'll have more kids when your a famous Broadway star" he said and Rachel's eyes filled with tears as she imagined the future and she nodded her head wearily, snuggling deeper into Puck's arms and eventually they both fell into a light slumber, both of their dreams filled with images of their daughter that they would never raise but would always love more than words could say, Johanna Grace.

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And of course Puck had been right when he'd told Rachel that they would have more kids one day but it was a little sooner than they expected. At the start of their senior year, Rachel found out she was pregnant again and though she was even more terrified than when she was pregnant with Johanna both her and Puck knew that they couldn't go through losing another child and three weeks before graduation, Rachel gave birth to another little girl whom they named Caroline Barbra Puckerman. She looked so much like Johanna that it caused an ache in both Rachel and Puck's chest.

After Graduation, Rachel and Puck decided to have a fresh start in New York with Caroline and it was there that Rachel became a famous Broadway star after starring as Maria in the revival of West Side Story and Puck started his very successful pool cleaning business but Caroline was the definite light of their lives was Caroline. She was everything to Puck and Rachel and though they knew that Johanna had been given away to amazing people who would care for her but every time they looked at Caroline's smiling face they would always be reminded of the daughter that they never knew.

Rachel and Puck had never seen Johanna since the day of her birth when Greg and Louise adopted her and they didn't think that they would ever see her again. Well, that was until they moved back to Lima the summer of 2026 and Caroline became a freshman at McKinley High.

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**A/N- So that's the prologue! I'm sorry if I wasn't accurate about adoption but I'm only 13 so I sorry about that! So did you like it? If you didn't I honestly don't blame you guys but I'm gonna thank you for taking the times to read it anyway.**

**If you would like me to continue this story then please, please, PLEASE review as I'll only keep writing it if I know that people are reading it so drop me a line! Even a single word is amazing!**

**So that's it for now guys! Thanks for reading and please review!**

**_~TheGirlWithTheGreyEyes_ x**


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